Library

Scientific paper • 2014

Gross Domestic Problem: The Politics Behind the World's Most Powerful Number

By: Lorenzo Fioramonti

GDP; power; war; markets; economists; globalization

Scientific paper • 2014

The power of neighborhood – rethinking the way of life within co-housing projects in Switzerland

By: Sanna Frischknecht

Abstract: Focusing on the question of how people live and interact, co-housing projects, such as “Kraftwerk1”, “Nena1” and others attempt to withdraw imperatives of growth by establishing a new way of life in urban contexts. Some of the projects are closely connected to the ideas of an urban utopia “bolo’bolo” which was written by P.M. in the 1980ies. This ideal of a new way of life describes a...

Scientific paper • 2014

Getting to Postgrowht: The Transformative Power of Paradigm Shifts

By: Maja Goepel

Abstract: Humans create stories about why they are here, what the purpose of this journey is and how to relate to their human and natural environment. These stories rest on some core ideas that feed into the common language and sense-making that people apply when engaging in collaboration, the design of institutions or legitimization of domination. Looking at what the story of neoclassical...

Scientific paper • 2014

A historical exploration of ruralist ideology in Spain and its importance for the degrowth and democracy debate

By: Santiago Gorostiza

degrowth, autonomy, democracy, fascism, ruralism, Spain

Scientific paper • 2014

Human Scale Development... away from bullets and machines

By: Soledad Granada

Abstract: The expansion of the modern state implies the continuous conquer of territory, and people, in order to access to resources. This conquer expresses as the continuous substitution of production models from peasant self-sustainable to agro-industrial and/or extractive, resulting in the territorial homogenization of production. This substitution, associated to different conceptions of...

Scientific paper • 2014

Ways towards an egalitarian post-growth society

By: Yorck Hauß

Abstract: In the early industrialized countries the economic growth rates are declining. Various symptoms of instability are showing already. Furthermore, economic growth has reached social and ecological boundaries. This implies the need for a transformation of the present social structure. A stable post-growth society has to be either egalitarian or authoritarian. There is empirical evidence...

Scientific paper • 2014

The quest for sustainable development: Decoupling of what and how?

By: Michael Herrmann

From the introduction: This paper provides a clear framework of sustainable development, which helps to navigate through the increasingly muddled discussion, and to identify policy priorities for sustainable development pathways. The paper reiterates the call for more inclusive and greener economic growth and to this end argues for two distinct types of decoupling: Efforts to decouple economic...

Scientific paper • 2014

Swap, share, experience: the transformative potential of socio-ecological forms of practice

By: Jenny Lay, Till Westermayer

Abstract: Regarding strategies for transformation, we examine the transformative potential of socio-ecological projects. "Pioneers of change", i.e. innovative projects that do not stay in niches but shift the play of powers, encourage the degrowth transformation. When and how do such "forms of practice" become powerful instruments of transformation? Following practice theory, we understand...

Scientific paper • 2014

Economic growth and socio-ecological struggles in Bolivia

By: Isabella Radhuber

Abstract: Bolivia registers internationally sensational economic growth rates. From 1998 to 2005 the Gross National Product increased by 2.9%, from 2006 to 2009 by 5%, and in 2013 by an estimated 6.5%. Though economic growth is linked to new socio-political measures, economic growth also – as is the main argument of my contribution – goes along with severe socio-ecological implications for the...

Scientific paper • 2014

Societal Relations with Nature and Mental Infrastructures - A critical glance from Buen Vivir and Theravāda-Buddhism

By: Christoph Maria Sanders

Mental infrastructures; Societal relations with nature; Nature-culture-dualism; Buen Vivir; Theravāda-Buddhism

Scientific paper • 2014

‘Expand or die’. The historical foundations of the economic growth paradigm

By: Matthias Schmelzer

Abstract: ‘Economic growth’ is widely regarded as a key goal of economic policy, not only across the political spectrum but also in all countries. How did the pursuit of growth become the essential goal of policy-making and a key priority taken for granted among social scientists, politicians, and the general public? This contribution to the special session "Degrowth and History" takes up this...

Scientific paper • 2014

Economic versus ecological world view – ontologies as reality blinder

By: Joachim H. Spangenberg

Abstract: The standard economists’ worldview comprises an ontology according to which the environment is as part of the economic system, implying a distinction between useful and not useful nature (as today frequently in ecosystem service discussions), an anthropology of selfish individuals and an axiology of utilitarism. This worldview determines the “solutions” developed: no limitation to...

Scientific paper • 2014

The Post-communist Continuous Crisis and the Wake-up Call of Rosia Montana

By: Irina Velicu

Abstract: This paper examines various forms of resistance and alternative proposals to capital development in a post-socialist context. I argue that learning from the controversies here could be useful for research on de-growth because they are articulated from a position of anxiety with regard to both the communist and the neo-liberal experiments. What has disappeared after 1989 has not been a...

Scientific paper • 2014

Convivial and Emancipatory Technologies – suitable conceptions for Technology in a Degrowth Society?

By: Andrea Vetter, Bettina Barthel

Abstract: A degrowth society, like all human societies that ever existed, will need technology. But which conceptual frameworks could be suitable to denote such a “degrowth technology”? We look at two different proposals: first the idea of “Convivial Technologies”, coined in the 1970ies by the dissident thinker Ivan Illich and recently newly adapted in the “manifest for conviviality” written by...

Position paper • 2014

Food and Seed Sovereignty as conditions for degrowing our food system

By: Lanka Horstink

This media entry is a stirring paper of the Group Assembly Process (GAP) at the Degrowth Conference in Leipzig in 2014. This paper belongs the group Agriculture and Food.

Position paper • 2014

GAP working group 2014 - Democracy

By: Degrowth Conference Leipzig 2014

Results from the GAP (Group Assembly Process) Group Democracy at the Degrowth Conference in Leipzig 2014 Proposals for the Transformation The necessary shifts will only be democratic but it needs to be an alternative to the representative democratic system we experience today. > More time. > More inclusive. > Enable autonomous societies. > Look for windows of opportunity. System...

Position paper • 2014

A postgrowth society will have to be democratic or will not be at all

By: Barbara Muraca

This media entry is a stirring paper of the Group Assembly Process (GAP) at the Degrowth Conference in Leipzig in 2014. This paper belongs the group Democracy.

Position paper • 2014

Beyond regulation: Money, banks and finance in a degrowth perspective

By: Fabian Scheidler, Matthias Schmelzer

This media entry is a stirring paper of the Group Assembly Process (GAP) at the Degrowth Conference in Leipzig in 2014. This paper belongs the group Money and Finance.

Position paper • 2014

Towards a new activism to effectively support a transition to a de-growth economy

By: Micha Narberhaus

This media entry is a stirring paper of the Group Assembly Process (GAP) at the Degrowth Conference in Leipzig in 2014. This paper belongs the group Organizing collective action for degrowth.

Position paper • 2014

GAP working group 2014 - Redefining Value

By: Degrowth Conference Leipzig 2014

Results from the GAP (Group Assembly Process) Group Redefining Value at the Degrowth Conference in Leipzig 2014 Primacy of needs WHAT? > Primacy of self-determined human fundamental needs for all (e.g. Max-Neef's human scale development approach: subsistance, protection, affection, understanding, participation, leisure, creation, identity and freedom). > Counscious human responsability...